Noob question - will exposures fog water?

Question

Noob question - will exposures fog water?

Answer 1

I'm not sure exactly what you are asking but here is my guess. Do you want to know how to make the water in a stream or waterfall foggy and blurry or milky looking? If so here goes.

Set your camera on a tripod.

Set the ISO to 100

Set the aperture to the largest number or smallest opening.

Set the shutter speed accordingly. Use the light meter in the viewfinder. Shutter speed should be very slow. A couple of seconds at least. The longer the shutter is open the more blur you will get in the water. If you can't get a slow enough exposure to get the effect you want you have two options.

1. Come back when it is a little darker. Not really the best choice.

2. Use a Neutral Density filter. A ND filter will act like sunglasses for your camera. It reduces the amount of light let through the lens. This will give you a longer shutter speed. It does not effect the color of your photos though.

ND filters come in different strengths. The stronger ones will block the most light and give you the longest exposures. You can also stack them to get an even longer exposure.

This will be nearly impossible to do with most point and shoot cameras. You need to be able to adjust the shutter speed and aperture.

I repeat that you need a tripod for this. You could not possibly hold the camera steady enough in your hands.